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Welcome to the
September 2011 issue of the G4 Newsletter
G4 on Twitter
G4 News
G4 is
preparing accreditation and certification of the largest manufacturers of
gambling products in the whole world.
Who’s
next?
Conferences
Conference
Problem Gambling and Responsible Gaming
20 October 2011, Cluj
– Napoca, Romania
info: clujconference2011@gmail.com
21st
Annual Association for Gambling Studies (NAGS) Conference
23 – 25 November 2011, Melbourne, Australia
www.nags,org.au
9th
European Conference on Gambling Studies and Policy Issues
18 – 21 September 2012
Loutraki, Greece
www.easg.org
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Ethical
Business practices
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Information systems for staff and players
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Staff training
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Staff
and customer information
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Intervention
and referral service
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www.gx4.com
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WARNING!
It looks like G4 has achieved a well recognised reputation on the online gambling
market as a solid provider of counselling services and as THE auditing
group and certification agency on Responsible Gaming. However, dozens of
websites provide information on G4 without having a contract with G4,
trying to tell the outside world that they have an agreement with G4 and
work according to our standards. It is smart to check and eventually double
check if you’re not sure. Please contact us if you have any doubts or
think someone might be cheating.
info@gx4.com
G4 Certification
At present G4 is working
on agreements with potential clients.
If you are interested, please e-mail us at info@gx4.com
Certification Responsible
Gaming
NMi and G4 have joined forces in the field of responsible gaming.
What can we certify?
Beyond the standard requirements laid down by the authorities, it is
possible to certify best practice for responsible gaming.
Certification may
include:
• Training for
employees: recognizing and safeguarding against the development of gambling
problems
• Supply of information about the risks of gambling
• Technical requirements: RNG random number generators
How does it work?
G4 can work in consultation with your organisation to determine
requirements for responsible gaming. NMi, as an
independent testing laboratory, can test against these requirements. NMi will verify the machines of the software by
auditing, inspection, verification or a combination of these three options.
You will receive a test report and, if the machine or software complies
with the requirements, a certificate.
Of course we can combine the testst for
responsible gaming with the standard test procedures, which will reduce
time and costs.
For more info: visit
www.nmi.nl
and/or
www.gx4.com
Lucky or genius?
Woman wins lottery four times
She was called the luckiest
woman in the world.
But now that luck is being
called into question by some who think that winning the lottery four times
is more than just a coincidental spell of good fortune.
Joan R. Ginther
from Texas won multiple million dollar payouts
each time.
The reclusive Ms Ginther, 63, who has amassed a $US20 million ($19.7million)
fortune through scratch cards, is a Stanford-educated maths genius who may
have cracked the code that determines how winning tickets are distributed.
First, she won $5.4 million,
then a decade later, she won $2 million, then two years later $3 million
and in the summer of 2010, she hit a $10 million jackpot.
The odds of this has been
calculated at one in 18 septillion and luck like this could only come once
every quadrillion years.
Harper's Magazine reporter
Nathaniel Rich recently wrote an article about Ms Ginther,
which calls the the validity of her
"luck" into question.
First, he points out, Ms Ginther is a former maths professor with a PhD from
Stanford University specialising in statistics.
A professor at the Institute
for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of
Nevada, Reno, told Mr Rich: "When something this unlikely happens in a
casino, you arrest ‘em first and ask
questions later".
Although Ms Ginther now lives in Las Vegas, she won all four of her
lotteries in Texas.
Three of her wins, all in
two-year intervals, were by scratch-off tickets bought at the same mini
mart in the town of Bishop.
Mr Rich details the myriad
ways in which Ms Ginther could have gamed the
system - including the fact that she may have figured out the algorithm
that determines where a winner is placed in each run of scratch-off
tickets.
He believes that after Ms Ginther figured out the algorithm, it wouldn’t be
difficult to determine where the tickets would be shipped, as the shipping
schedule is apparently fixed, and there were a few sources she could have
found it out from.
According to Forbes, the residents of
Bishop, Texas, seem to believe God was behind it all.
The Texas Lottery Commission told Rich that Ms Ginther must have been "born under a lucky
star", and that they don’t suspect foul play.
Daily Mail, 12-08-2011
Next Issue
November 2011
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- United
Kingdom -
Tackle gambling to reduce crime, says Howard League
A team of researchers from Lancaster University have
insisted that crime could be reduced by five per cent if gambling problems
were effectively addressed.
They made the comments after their research found that 5.4 per cent of all
male and three per cent of all female prisoners considered their current
offence was linked to gambling.
This was in a pilot study involving men and women in two English prisons.
If representative, this equals 5.275 per cent of the total prison
population at the time they responded to the study questionnaire.
The researchers also found that rates of problem gambling are significantly
higher among prisoners than in the general population. 27.8 per cent of
male prisoners and 18.1 per cent of female prisoners were defined as being
either problem gamblers or at medium risk of gambling.
The three-year pilot study by a research team at the University of Lancaster
was funded by the Responsible Gambling Fund (RGF), the national charity
that distributes funds for gambling research, education and treatment.
A second study, funded by RGF and the Economic and Social Research Council,
examining the questions raised by the pilot in more depth, is now under
way.
Almost 60 per cent of male and nearly 40 per cent of female prisoners had
taken part in some form of gambling before going to prison.
Researchers found that attitudes to gambling were broadly comparable with
the national averages in the British Gambling Prevalence Survey. However,
prisoners tended to be more in favour of people
having the right to gamble whenever they want and to be against banning
gambling altogether.
There was a significant difference between total attitudinal scores for
women in prison and those in the community, with those in prison having
more favourable attitudes towards gambling
overall. But there were no significant differences between the two male
populations.
Prisoners told researchers of the links they made between gambling and
their current crime. These included arguing with a partner and selling
drugs to get money to gamble; stealing from family members to gamble; and
getting into fights over gambling.
One prisoner believed there is a link between her being a "street
working young woman" and gambling. Another regarded gambling in prison
as a guilty pleasure, while recognising that it
sometimes leads to potentially violent confrontations between prisoners.
Jim Fearnley of RGF said, "“If this
pilot’s findings are representative of the prison population at the
time the research took place they reveal a worrying level of problem
gambling amongst offenders in England and point to the need for co-ordinated national activity to tackle gambling
problems in the criminal justice system.”
Chris Bath of UNLOCK, an organisation of former
offenders, explained, "Although prisons have increasingly recognised the importance of personal financial
responsibility in reducing re-offending, gambling has simply not been on
the radar".
Bath insisted, "People with gambling problems need support, whether
they are in prison or the community".
Ekklesia, 26-07-2011
- Greece
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NS: Techlink welcomes new VLT legislation Greece
New video lottery legislation
in Greece could present major opportunities for a Cape Breton company.
The legislation, which
legalizes and introduces 35,000 video lottery terminals in that country,
also requires that every VLT must be equipped with card-based responsible
gambling tools.
John Xidos,
president and CEO of Techlink Entertainment Ltd.
of Sydney, said in a release the legislation is a significant international
endorsement of the importance of responsible gambling tools for VLTs.
“And it is great news
for Techlink since we are the only manufacturer
in the world that currently has card-based (responsible gaming) tools in
operation on traditional VLTs,” he said.
Techlink invented real-time, card-based responsible gambling tools for VLTs
that allow players to set time and money limits, see how much they are
spending, winning and losing over time and self-exclude if they wish to
stop playing.
The responsible gaming tools,
which were added to all VLTS in Nova Scotia in 2010, help players to keep
their play responsible and prevent problematic play.
“Greece is the first
international jurisdiction to announce it will follow Nova Scotia’s
lead and we are well placed to pursue this contract,” said Xidos. “The rest of the globe has been watching
this world-first installation and now that it is successfully completed,
others will start using these tools to increase the responsibility of their
gambling businesses.”
Greece’s new legislation is designed to help
reverse the country’s fiscal crisis by legalizing slot machines and
online gambling with an aim of collecting 700 million euros from license
concessions and taxes on the new gambling income.
Daily Buiness Buzz,
18-08-2011
- Singapore
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Massive Surge In Singapore Casino Self Exdusion
Orders
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According to a report released by
the the National Council on Problem Gambling
(NCPG), there has been a massive surge in the number of foreigners
applying for self exclusion orders at
Singapore casinos.
Last year, there were just 50 applications made by foreigners
throughout the whole of 2010 but now that figure has risen dramatically
to 12,660 people.
Singapore has more than one million foreigners working in the country
and various factors are seen as key to explaining the sharp rise in
self exclusion orders.
Firstly, since November the self-exclusion application process has been
simplified from the manual system previously in place, with the NCPG
writing to foreign worker employers and informing them on how to now
apply online.
Secondly, many Singaporer
companies are refusing to renew their foreign employees work permits
unless they agree to give the casinos a wide berth. For instance, Eng Lee Engineerings
employs 400 foreign workers and as spokesperson Brenda Koh explains:
“Whether they win or lose at the casino, gambling affects their
motivation and concentration at work.”
HEC Electrical and Construction reechoed the sentiment with the
company’s finance and human resource manager Eliza Fong
commenting:
“Their pay is not high, so we don’t want them to waste
their hard-earned money.”
However, other companies such as Lucky Joint Construction have taken a
more hands-off approach to their foreign employees’ after work
activities, although attendance figures are watched carefully as a
forewarning of any potential problems. As managing director Yeow Kian Seng explains:
“I find that it’s not necessary for our staff because their
attendance is quite regular, except that we monitor those who go for
more medical leave.”
In total, around 18,000 self exclusion orders
are now in place at Singapore’s casinos, of which 70% are from
foreigners. In addition to the 12,660 foreign workers excluded from the
casinos, the number of locals excluding themselves from visiting
Singapore’s casinos has also risen from 3,500 to 5,389.
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OnlinePoker.net, 28-07-2011
- Austria
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Online gaming ‘no threat’to AWPs
Speaking at the World Gaming Executive Summit in Madrid in July, Wohlfahrt
said that the AWP market is mainly concentrated in Germany, the UK, Spain
and Italy and generates approximately 20bn euro in gross gaming revenue.
The growth in online gaming has long-been seen as a potential threat to
casino gaming but the street market looks unlikely to be impacted by this
trend.
"I'm confident that this market share will stay at this size or grow
over the next couple of years through the substitution of old machines with
the new generation," he said, "so we see no threats at all coming
from online gaming."
"I see the positive side - I think that the next phase of operations,
the AWP market will still have its presence."
Although this current generation of players may age, there is a great deal
of interest from younger players to ensure that the market continues to
thrive.
Intergame Magazine, 07-07-2011
- Australia
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Children as young as 13 are being allowed to gamble on poker machines with
real money on Facebook
Children as young as 13 are
being allowed to gamble on poker machines with real money on Facebook,
prompting calls for an urgent government crackdown.
A game called Slotomania appears to target young people with cartoons
and encourages players to purchase coins with credit cards, BPAY or PayPal.An investigation by The Daily Telegraph has
revealed children with a Facebook profile that lists their age as well
under 18 are still allowed and encouraged to play with real money.
The Daily Telegraph was able
to gain easy access to the machines by logging in as a 13-year-old.
Facebook did not create Slotomania, whose developers could not be reached last
night. However, the game is promoted through Facebook sites.
Clubs Australia chief
executive Anthony Ball wrote to Family and Community Services Minister
Jenny Macklin - who has carriage of introducing the pokie
reforms - more than two weeks ago to warn her of the site but she has not
responded.
"The emergence of online
gambling applications, which are explicitly aimed at children and are
easily available to minors on social networking sites, is extremely
concerning," Mr Ball wrote.
"Clubs Australia
believes the federal government should immediately examine what measures
are available to prevent children from accessing and purchasing credits to
use for online gambling, both on online gaming websites and social
networking sites."
A spokesman for Ms Macklin
said late yesterday the letter had been forwarded to Communications
Minister Stephen Conroy, because he was responsible for on- line gambling.
A spokesman for Senator Conroy said the government would conduct a
review of the Interactive Gambling Act.
"The review will include
examination of the operation of the IGA and the effectiveness of the
current provisions," he said.
"It will also include
further consideration of international regulatory approaches to online
gambling and their potential applicability to the Australian context.
"It will also examine
the ability to improve harm minimisation measures for online gambling
services.
"The review will also
look at the enforcement of existing prohibitions on certain types of online
gambling, the way the Act applies to different technological platforms, and
the growing number of Australians gambling online."
But Mr Ball said the government should stop trying
to put a cap on poker machines and act on online gambling.
The Daily
Telegraph, 21-07-2011
- South
Africa -
Internet
gambling rules soon
Online gambling is the Wild
West of the gaming industry
– completely
unregulated – yet South
Africans, who can increasingly access cheaper internet connections at home,
are taking their chances and pocketing their illicit winnings.
But the National Gambling
Board is on their trail, as well as that of the advertisers of what remains
an illegal business that was estimated to be worth R320 million in 2009.
Almost R3m in ill-gotten
gains from online gambling has been confiscated and paid into a trust. And
that advert featuring the blond hunk surrounded by mostly semi-clad women
has disappeared from television screens after the board’s
intervention.
This week the review
commission on the South African gambling industry and its regulation told
MPs of the trade and industry committee that all forms of online gambling,
including poker and all betting, should be brought into the regulatory fold
and made legal.
“The big elephant in
the room is internet gambling. The danger is that with the offer of the
carrot, it may grow unexpectedly. But already any one of us can log on at
night and place hundreds of bets,” Stephen Louw,
one of the commissioners, told MPs.
The five-member
commission’s recommendations include offering a limited number of
initial licences, advertising rights for these licence holders, a bigger
role for banks in enforcement mechanisms and national regulations to cover
all forms on online gambling, whether from a computer or a cellphone with web access.
The recommendations follow
Italy’s example. That country has issued 200 online gambling licences
and the regulatory agency e-mails users who have entered unlicensed sites,
warning them they would forfeit all consumer protection.
Louw said total bans on online gambling were difficult to enforce: the
US and Australia were among the top 10 online gambling countries –
after outlawing it.
Gambling board CEO Baby Tyawa said the board had worked with the Reserve Bank
and banking regulatory authorities to act against illegal online gambling
by targeting winnings.
The focus had been on the
“big number winners”, but now the smaller fish would receive
attention. However, the board was coy about giving further details.
And the possibility of
regularising irregular income has been nixed by the Reserve Bank after
consultations. Now banks have come on board after hearing that online
gambling wins were unlawful.
“We depend entirely on
the various regulators,” said Tyawa, who is
in favour of regulating online gambling. She added that as the board
“we must explain, we must come with the data… show we are
losing finance” in the form of tax.
It was estimated that R320m
was generated through online gambling in 2009 in South Africa, according to
eGaming Review Magazine.
The lawful gambling industry
generated R15.9bn, or R18.1bn including the national lottery in 2009. This
netted taxes of R1.5bn, or R1.92bn if VAT was included, making gambling tax
the second-most important source of income.
Since legalisation in 1996,
according to the review report, gross gaming revenues increased in real
terms between 2001 and 2009. Casinos account for 80 percent
of the taxes and 90 percent of the almost 60 000
jobs the industry.
While the regulation of South
Africa’s gambling industry was well regarded internationally, the
review commission warned against the current piecemeal approach to online
gambling. There are draft regulations on interactive gaming only, not the
whole spread of online gambling.
As the online gambling sector
is growing, the murky legislative and regulatory environment would need
urgent attention, according to the review commission.
DA MPs Tim Harris and Jacques Smalle this
week called for regulations to be finalised. “Such regulation should
establish a licensing regime, allow online registration, allow servers to
be located anywhere and also govern poker and betting exchanges.”
Already, the Western Cape
Gambling Board and Phumelela Gaming and Leisure offer bets via cellphones or internet banking.
“The use of cellphones
to bet is not any different to using the internet. However, bookmakers and totalisers are not subject to the same restrictions or
protection that these interactive gambling operators are expected to comply
with,” the review report said.
Weekend Argus 15-08-2011
- Australia-
Online safer
for problem gamblers: Sportbet chief
Third-party verification and
analytics software help minimise problem gambling, Sportsbet
chief executive officer, Cormac Barry, claims.
Despite the potential for
minors to accrue debts, online gambling companies operating inside
Australia provide offer greater protection against problem gambling than
retail outlets, according to Sportsbet chief
executive officer, Cormac Barry.
At the federal inquiry into
interactive and online gambling and gambling advertising and the
Interactive Gambling and Broadcasting Amendment (Online Transactions and
Other Measures) Bill 2011, Barry said the use of third-party verification
services as well as intelligent analytics software meant that online
gambling offered greater security against problem gambling.
“There are occasions
where people will try and open a second or third account to try and get
more money on — customers have limits on how much they can bet on
each selection — so we run real-time matching software that will pick
out common characteristics with similar accounts and that will flag and
alert to our fraud team,” he said.
“The same would apply
with people who have self-excluded — if they try to open a new
account with the same email address or phone number or used a different
address, the software would pick it up and the account would be suspended
by the fraud team.
“The efforts that have
been made by the online gambling industry are considerably more
sophisticated than other areas of the [gambling] industry.”
Commenting on the ability of
minors to access online gambling, Barry conceded current regulatory
arrangements — which gave some 90 days for new customers to be
properly verified — allowed for minors, as well as adults, to create
online gambling debts of up two thousand dollars.
“You can still play, but you cannot benefit from that
activity: You cannot withdraw money ... you can still lose money” he
said.
“It is possible [for
minors to gamble during the 90 days]."
Barry said the prospect of
requiring people to provide a full 100 points of identification before
opening an online gambling accounts would be too high for the industry.
“A barrier of that
level would be very onerous and would only serve customers to offshore
sites who do not have that level of regulation,” he said.
“The key thing when we
are looking at regulation is to strike a balance and allow the business to
operate and have processes that protect the customer — whether they
are minors or responsible gamblers.”
Commenting on national
initiatives to combat problem gambling, such as the mandatory
pre-commitment scheme, Barry said the company was supportive of the
creation of a set of federal standards to ensure that online betters were
assured of “high levels of protection”.
Barry also said the company
supported the creation of a program where licensed Australian gambling and
wagering operators made annual financial contributions to a national
gambling problem fund to be accessed by gambling research and counselling
organisations.
In addition the company
supported the establishment of a national register of self-excluded problem
gamblers to facilitate co-ordination between licensed online gambling
operators.
Citing the Productivity
Commission, Barry said electronic gaming machines accounted for some 75 to
80 per cent of problem gamblers. Citing Queensland Government research,
Barry claimed there was no evidence of problem gambling having been
increased due to the internet since 2001.
“Nor is the instance of
problem gambling higher among those who online gamblers in comparison to
those that gamble with land-based retail outlets,” he said.
According to Barry, Sportsbet had some
700,000 customers, of which more than 95 per cent are based in Australia.
Some 900 of these had used Sportsbet’s
self-exclusion service in the past financial year and 1600 customers set
deposit limits.
The self-exclusion service allows customers to stop themselves from
accessing
phonebased wagering, Sportsbet’s
website or face-to-face betting in the Northern Territory.
Cio.com.au
, 11-08-2011
-United Kingdom-
UK Gambling Commission releases new statistics
Once again, the UK Gambling
Commission has released statistics over the state of the industry.
According to the commission, there has been a very slight increase (0.07%)
in remote gambling in the UK, mostly due to more people purchasing their
lottery tickets online.
From September 2010 to June
2011, 11.8% of the 4,000 adults polled in the UK Gambling Commission's
survey said that they had participated in remote gambling in the past
month. Half of these had purchased online lottery tickets only.
In the year to June 2011,
9.1% of those polled said that they had bough
tickets for the National Lottery draw over the internet in the past four
weeks.
The average remote gambler in
the UK is a male between the ages of 18 and 44.
10.5% of all respondents took
part in remote gambling through a computer, laptop or handheld device,
while 3.2% gambled through their mobile phones. Interactive or digital TV
gambling was counted among 1.4% of the respondents.
Regular Gambling Statistics
The UK Gambling Commission
also released statistics for regular gambling, as follows:
56.7% of the adults polled
said that they had taken part in at least one form of land wagering in the
past month.
This was an increase from the
55.5% noted in 2010 and the 55.2% in 2009.
46.3% of respondents gambled
through the National Lottery.
11.6% purchased tickets for society or good cause lotteries.
10.7% played through scratch
cards.
4.6% bet on horse races.
3.4% bought bingo cards.
3.3% gambled on fruit or slot
machines.
Further, it was noted that the average gambler overall in the United
Kingdom is a male, most likely over the age of 45. This is in contrast to
the average remote gambler who is aged between 18 and 44.
Gambling KINGZ, 02-08-2011
- Canada-
Canada racetrack uses facial recognition software to ban problem gamblers
A racetrack in Ottawa has installed a facial
recognition system in a bid to help problem gamblers beat their addiction.
The system has been installed at the Rideau Carlson Raceways slots centre,
and compares the faces of gamblers to a self-exclusion list that allows
gamblers to request that they are blocked from gambling if temptation
proves too great.
Previously, the system relied
on staff recognizing gamblers, of whom there could be 15,000 at a time. But
the new facial recognition system goes much further, allowing for automated
screening to block people who have previously asked to be blocked.
It’s a rare example of a company attempting to use facial recognition
for a specific purpose that seems to have some social value.
But critics remain cautious
about the staggering proliferation of facial recognition systems, which
have been implemented on many websites and in many parts of the world.
Campaigners argue that facial recognition scanning is a violation of
privacy, an argument that has a lot of sympathy among the general public
but looks set to be largely ignored by legislators.
So while the racetrack’s use of facial recognition software seems to
be a good idea,
it does serve as a reminder of the more general dangers associated with
facial
recognition programs, which could potentially revolutionize advertising and
marketing strategies. At present, there are few safeguards in place to
restrict the
growth of facial recognition strategies in most countries.
The Ottawa Citizen,
06-08-2011
-
Scotland -
Phone gambling creating a new breed of addicts
THEY have been praised for their looks and their
ease of use as well as for connecting their owners to the internet while on
the move.
But now the new generation of smart phones is
being blamed for a surge in the numbers of women falling into debt through
online gambling.
Addiction charity the RCA Trust has logged a 15 per cent rise in women of
all ages getting into debt through using internet poker and bingo sites in
the last year.
The Trust says it has been contacted by more than 200
women, many of whom have racked up debts totalling thousands of pounds,
with increased use of smart phones making it easier to gamble 24 hours per
day.
This has boosted the number of young women who have become
addicted to online gambling, while older women have also started to use the
internet more, meaning that those without access to "terrestrial"
gambling opportunities such as bingo halls can still play.
But the Trust claims that the number of people who
actually seek help for their problem are the "tip of the
iceberg", adding that thousands of Scottish women could be affected
and could end up with serious financial problems.
"This is becoming a major issue," said Andy
Todd, counselling manager for the RCA Trust. "It is the tip of the
iceberg - there will be a lot more women out there who are in the same
situation and do not come to us, or any other organisations, for
help."
"The key is the accessibility - that people
can log in 24-7 from their smart phone as well as from their
computer," said Todd.
"There are an increasingly large range of these sites
that people use. Historically, there has been a lot of supply, but demand
now seems to be increasing."
Researchers believe that women who feel isolated -
especially if they are living alone in rural communities - are most likely
to turn to online gambling.
Some women appear to be running up thousands of pounds of
debt in a very short space of time as they lack the support - and restraint
- of friends and fellow players who would be present in a real life
situation.
"We find that people create the fastest debts in a
short period of time with online gambling like bingo," added Todd.
"We have had people come to us with debts as high as hundreds of
thousands of pounds.
"In a lot of cases, people like the community that
goes with the online gambling - you can use a chat room and you are talking
to people who are also interested in something you like. It is very
addictive."
The RCA Trust research was presented to a conference of
debt experts organised by Money Advice Scotland at Crieff
Hydro last month.
"The actual increase that agencies are seeing
at the moment is relatively small," said Yvonne MacDermid,
chief executive of MAS.
"But in real terms, the problem is much
bigger. There are a lot of people out there who are keeping their gambling
problem underground.
"It is a lot more secretive when people are
gambling on their own than in it is in real life if they go to the bingo
hall with a few friends.
"The problem is that it is an addiction - they feel great about what
they're doing to begin with, but then that changes."
She added: "I believe that as people become
more and more desperate, we are going to see more of this."
Online gambling is going through a boom with a report last year by Juniper
Research finding that more than two million sports betting fans across
Europe are now using a handheld device to place wagers.
Betting journalist Richard Preen suggested getting various web portals to
be a success via mobile phones is now a priority for many gambling
companies.
"The big push is smartphone technology now. The whole of the betting
industry, including bingo, is trying to get their products working
successfully on smart phones," he said.
Most online bingo sites market themselves to be more attractive to female
customers - with many signing up to work with charities to raise money for
breast cancer or other women's illnesses. Many of the larger ones, run by
reputable companies such as Gala Bingo, the UK's biggest bingo operator,
have "responsible gambling" policies, but the range of sites
available is varied.
Some offer prize draws for people who play on their site - claiming that
customers could win champagne, a laptop or an an
e-reader if they spend a certain amount of money online - in a bid to
encourage players to spend more.
SCOTLANDonSUNDAY, 21-08-2011
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